1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus for forming an alignment layer of a liquid crystal display and a method for forming an alignment layer, and more particularly, to an apparatus for forming two different alignment directions on one alignment layer by one unitary light source and method for forming two different alignment directions on one alignment layer by one unitary light source.
2. Description of the Related Art
The LCD panel includes a lower substrate having a pixel electrode, an upper substrate having a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the lower and upper substrate. When applying an electric filed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode, an arrangement of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer changes. The optical transmittance of the liquid crystal molecules is controlled by the changed arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules to display an image.
Because liquid crystal molecules control is one important factor for improving display quality, an alignment layer is generally configured on the inner surface of the lower substrate or upper substrate to effectively control the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal molecules.
As shown in FIG. 8, in a conventional photo-alignment apparatus, the conveying track 10 carries a substrate 11 which is coated with processing material along a manufacturing direction. However, due to the same incident angle of the light source 17 projected on the substrate 11, only one alignment direction is formed on the surface of the substrate 11 after the substrate 11 is moved through the masks 15 and light sources 17. In order to form two or more than two alignment directions on the substrate 11, the substrate 11 is turned 180 degrees on the central platform 13 of the conveying track 10, and once again moved through the masks 15 and light sources 17.
For the above mentioned photo-alignment apparatus, not only is a larger size of the factory space necessary to accommodate the apparatus, but a longer manufacturing time for fabricating an alignment layer having two alignment directions is needed, which is economically unsatisfactory.